Today Apple really let the dog off the leash, unveiling many new products to rejuvenate their music monopoly.
iPod Nano
The 4th generation iPod Nano has been redesigned, confirming leaked photos from a few days ago. The design rewinds back to the days of the second gen. Nano, sporting the same tall, slender look that originally defined the Nano line. I’m glad it’s back, because MP3 players shouldn’t look like roadkill (G3 Nano).
As far as technical improvements go, the big one here is the addition of an accelerometer.
The accelerometer comes to iPod nano. Give it a shake to shuffle your music. Turn it sideways to view Cover Flow.
The new Nano comes in 9 vibrant colors: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, black, and of course the classic silver. There are two models of G4 Nano — the 8GB for $150, and the 16GB for $200.
iPod Touch
The new iPod Touch has had been slightly changed, featuring a tweaked design similar to that of the iPhone 3G (the curved back). The metal backings’ sheen is still there and additionally, the price has been dropped 70 big ones to $229. Touch now supports Genius playlist creation (keep reading).
iPod Shuffle
The iPod shuffle has gone through a very minor update. The design and technical specifications remain unchanged, but the shuffle now sports all the colors of the G2 Nano’s colors. Makes sense considering that the shuffle is a miniaturized G2 Nano.
iTunes
iTunes has undergone a version upgrade – to 8.0. Apple claimed that 8.0 would include enough features to deserve th 8.0 title. I’d say it does — aside from grid view and the new visualizer (seen above) there are 2 main brand spankin’ new features that are pretty cool:
- Genius Playlists: Select a song and hit the Genius button. Genius creates a playlist containing songs that match traits of the song picked.
- Genius Sidebar: Essentially just an advanced MiniStore. iTunes remembers every time you play a song. Sidebar simply takes that information and recommends songs based on your It only recommends music from the iTunes Store.
On a side note, Apple updated all the new earbuds (new as in released in the last generation of iPods) to include their own subwoofer and 2 tweeters (in layman’s terms: more speakers) which produce superior sound quality. These could be out already (included with the new Nano), but they are not available as a standalone product from the Apple store as of now.
What do you guys think of the new Nano’s look? Are iTunes’ new features just a bunch of
